Postgame: King Kappy

Kasperi Kapanen and the Leafs reigned victorious tonight. A 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings was the most recent installment of Toronto’s relentless offensive showings early into this season. Kappy’s coming out party continues, and William’s holding out party is starting to matter less and less.

With Auston Matthews driving the play right out of the gates, it was Matthews who would find Kasperi Kapanen with a feed to the back of the net. Kapanen would break the scoreless tie just 45 seconds into the game, with a clever bank shot that found its way past Kings goalie Jack Campbell for the early 1-0 lead.

The goal was Kapanen’s third of the season already. An impressive early impact from Kappy, who’s looking to solidify a top-six roll in Nylander’s absence.

That wasn’t all for the first, either. With 22 seconds left to go in the first, it would be Patrick Marleau potting his first of the season:

A beautifully placed shot by Marleau parked in front of the net, and another power play goal for the Leafs. Just unfair.

The Leafs would carry the 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

2nd Period

The second period would swing a little more in the Kings’ favor possession-wise. With LA controlling the bulk of the play, Ilya Kovalchuk would beat Garret Sparks early on in the 2nd. Kovalchuk kicks it back to 2013, not only by scoring a goal but also by being on a team that thinks Dion Phaneuf is good. 2-1.

The Leafs would once again re-gain their 2 goal lead later in the frame, however.

Great game. This was a decent all around team effort and shows that corsi aint all that indicative in some games. The zone exits were quite improved with the forwards coming back to help. Stretch passes were replaced by short outlets. All three d pairs played roughly the same number of minutes. Sparks played big league well, qnd returned to the form we knew of him from the marlies’ cup run. The team boxed out and cleared rebounds. Score effects were most of the reason corsi was weak. The buds know how to take advantage of opportunities.

Now we just need willie to sign any deal to get him back in the lineup.